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Anthony Pettis: Ben Askren thinking about retiring

The recent UFC on FOX 9 press conference featured UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, among many others. During it, Pettis made a statling statement about his RoufuSport teammate Ben Askren.

"One guy who is on the main stage, ready, is Ben Askren," said Pettis. "He's stuck between Bellator and the UFC, thinking about retiring. He's one of the best guys I've ever trained with...I don't want to see him get lost between organizations."

Askren is 12-0 and the current Bellator welterweight champion. However, his contract is up with the organization. Bellator has the right to match any offer, and is waiting for the UFC to name a price. In the meantime, Askren is not able to work.

Well to be honest he can probably make just as much money coaching college wrestling. If he gets low balled by the UFC and Bellator for 20/20 a fight then meanwhile Oklahoma University comes by and offers him 200K to be their coach, what would you do?

Dude, Iím a wrestler. Iím the best wrestler in MMA. Wrestling IS, was and always has been the most dominate form of mix martial art on the planet. Thatís all there is to it. We all know it, some people want to fight it, some people want doubt it but wresters rule the MMA world. -
Ben Askren

Well to be honest he can probably make just as much money coaching college wrestling. If he gets low balled by the UFC and Bellator for 20/20 a fight then meanwhile Oklahoma University comes by and offers him 200K to be their coach, what would you do?

he cant simply walk right in and get a top level college coaching job that pays six figures, that is extremely rare that a coach makes that much and those who do probably aren't geting fired anytime soon.

he cant simply walk right in and get a top level college coaching job that pays six figures, that is extremely rare that a coach makes that much and those who do probably aren't geting fired anytime soon.

Yea a little bit of an extreme example. But still he could an assistant job for what 50-60K, add in running camps over the summer, 10K-20K and he still makes a pretty good living. Plus he will still have sponsors like Asics, Cliff Keen and so on, he doesn't need MMA to live comfortably.

Dude, Iím a wrestler. Iím the best wrestler in MMA. Wrestling IS, was and always has been the most dominate form of mix martial art on the planet. Thatís all there is to it. We all know it, some people want to fight it, some people want doubt it but wresters rule the MMA world. -
Ben Askren

Interesting that Bellator is not even making a move to sign him. I get that they want the UFC to establish his value, but in doing so shows they don't really appreciate Askren much by just leaving him out there.